Longitudinal studies infrastructure platform
The Government is investing in an infrastructure platform for 2 nationally significant longitudinal studies, the Christchurch Health and Development Study, and the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Study.
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I tēnei whārangi
Te Whare Wānanga o Ōtākou – the University of Otago are the host of the platform which includes the 2 long-standing studies.
MBIE funding
The Government is investing $13.3 million (excluding GST) over seven years in longitudinal study infrastructure from 1 October 2024 to 30 June 2031.
These 2 studies have a long history of providing critical inputs into social policy both in New Zealand and overseas. Government investment in longitudinal studies will enable broader public benefits such as input into social policies that can maximise returns on social investment. Stable infrastructure funding will ensure continuity and efficiency in data collection, storage and sharing and allow a more strategic approach to those activities.
About the research
This investment will support people and equipment costs for core operations of the University of Otago’s nationally significant longitudinal study databases. Key activities include:
- collecting and storing data and biological samples from the studies’ participants
- maintaining and administering databases and biobanks
- improving methods for collecting data and samples, and for sharing data with other researchers.
Below is the contracted public statement from the University of Otago.
Read the public statement
Longitudinal studies reveal how human health and development unfolds throughout life and how early life factors relate to later health and social outcomes.
The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study and the Christchurch Health and Development Study are internationally renowned longitudinal studies that for over half a century have followed the lives of thousands of people from birth to middle age. Their research has informed policies world-wide to improve heath and reduce inequities, in areas such as early childhood education and reducing child poverty, injury prevention, and chronic disease.
Funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Strategic Science Investment Fund, their world-class data will be supported and protected by the Otago Lifecourse Study Programme - An Infrastructure Platform. The platform will grow the data, knowledge, and people needed to get the best out of these studies to improve health and social wellbeing in Aotearoa and internationally. The Platform will generate new datasets to address current and future health and social issues, allowing researchers to make the most of the taonga that they have been gifted from Study members.
Together, the studies will produce world-class data in areas that include positive aging, and mental and physical health from childhood into midlife and beyond. The platform will contribute to Māori advancement by developing Māori workforce capability and ensuring alignment with Te Tiriti o Waitangi throughout its activities.
The Directors of the Dunedin and Christchurch studies, Professor Moana Theodore and Associate Professor James Foulds, will be the Science Leaders of the platform. They have extensive expertise in longitudinal epidemiology and a collaborative vision for the future need to safeguard longitudinal data.
Contacts
Professor Theodore: director.dunedinstudy@otago.ac.nz
Associate Professor Foulds james.foulds@otago.ac.nz
Annual updates
Recipients of SSIF funding report yearly on the progress of their work programme. University of Otago will have a public update published from their 2024/25 annual report in 2025.
Read the public update from the 2024/2025 annual report
MBIE has recognised the strategic value of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (the Dunedin Study) and the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS) by funding the Otago Longitudinal Studies Programme from the Strategic Science Investment Fund.
These landmark studies have followed two birth cohorts since the 1970s, harnessing the power of longitudinal data to understand what shapes health and wellbeing throughout life. Retention rates of up to 90% at recent waves are unprecedented among studies of their kind. Together the studies have produced more than 2,000 research publications. Their findings have influenced public policy across a range of fields including child development, mental health, oral health, criminal justice, and biological aging.
While the studies have shown clear benefit to Aotearoa NZ, they have also had global impact, placing Aotearoa as a world leader in longitudinal data and lifecourse research. Increasingly, the Otago programme has been producing world-class research into healthy aging. The programme’s value to aging research will grow as the cohorts move into their 50s and beyond, informing the New Zealand Government’s policy such as its aging strategy Better Later Life: He Oranga Kaumātua 2019-2034.
MBIE’s investment in the programme will enable scalable, secure, and ethical use of these rich datasets, to maximise their benefit nationally and internationally. The programme will continue to help Aotearoa innovate in the health and social sciences. It will support the government’s plans to ensure Aotearoa becomes more economically competitive with its trading partners.
The programme aims to protect and enhance the data, biological samples, and intellectual capital of the studies. The funding provided by MBIE supports strategic planning, harmonization between the two studies, data gathering and further development of systems for national and international collaboration. Māori engagement will be embedded across governance, operations, and data use. This will support Māori data needs by creating opportunities for Māori researchers and data scientists, and making Māori self-determination and health equity central goals of the programme.
Highlights in 2024-2025:
- >70% of Dunedin Study members assessed at age 52, with the overall goal of seeing >90% by April 2026.
- Age 50 wave of CHDS design and planning underway, with data gathering due to start Q3 2026: new CHDS collaborations include plans to study cardiovascular, eye and bowel health at age 50.
- A collaborative report between the OECD and the Dunedin Study that highlighted the value of birth cohort data to identify life-course social risks and inform international social policy.
Birth cohort data and life-course social risks(external link) — Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
- Published data on Green Space availability and mental health
Life in green: Associations between greenspace availability and mental health over the lifecourse – A 40-year prospective birth cohort study(external link) — Science Direct
- A digital needs assessment of the Dunedin Study that included discussions and feedback from the CHDS to support longitudinal data infrastructure.
- New CHDS research database now more than 60% complete.
- Initial work towards the development of an Infrastructure Platform Plan.
- Maintenance of key overseas stakeholder relationships to identify future overseas funding opportunities (including Australia, Europe, and North America).
- Published longitudinal data on biomarkers of aging including retinal health, MRI changes, and oxidative stress.
Measures of retinal health successfully capture risk for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias at midlife(external link) — Sage Publications
- Work with leading New Zealand indigenous data sovereignty experts with a focus on longitudinal data.
- Networking with other Aotearoa / NZ life course research studies to support best practice.
Last updated: 24 March 2026
